*wan*

n. [ OF. alouance. ] 1. Approval; approbation. [ Obs. ] Crabbe. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The act of allowing, granting, conceding, or admitting; authorization; permission; sanction; tolerance. [ 1913 Webster ]

Without the king's will or the state's allowance. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Acknowledgment. [ 1913 Webster ]

The censure of the which one must in your allowance o'erweigh a whole theater of others. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. License; indulgence. [ Obs. ] Locke. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. That which is allowed; a share or portion allotted or granted; a sum granted as a reimbursement, a bounty, or as appropriate for any purpose; a stated quantity, as of food or drink; hence, a limited quantity of meat and drink, when provisions fall short. [ 1913 Webster ]

I can give the boy a handsome allowance. Thackeray. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. Abatement; deduction; the taking into account of mitigating circumstances; as, to make allowance for the inexperience of youth. [ 1913 Webster ]

After making the largest allowance for fraud. Macaulay. [ 1913 Webster ]

7. (com.) A customary deduction from the gross weight of goods, different in different countries, such as tare and tret. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Allowancing ] [ See Allowance, n. ] To put upon a fixed allowance (esp. of provisions and drink); to supply in a fixed and limited quantity; as, the captain was obliged to allowance his crew; our provisions were allowanced. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. (Zool.) A small lemuroid mammal (Arctocebus Calabarensis) of Africa. It has only a rudimentary tail. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. Act of avowing; avowal. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Upholding; defense; vindication. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Can my avowance of king-murdering be collected from anything here written by me? Fuller. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Law) The defendant in replevin, who avows the distress of the goods, and justifies the taking. Cowell. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Pref. a- + wanting. ] Missing; wanting. [ Prov. Scot. & Eng. ] Sir W. Hamilton. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A large swan. B. Jonson. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf. OF. couillon a coward, a cullion. ] One who works as a mason without having served a regular apprenticeship. [ Scot. ] Among Freemasons, it is a cant term for pretender, interloper. [ 1913 Webster ]

prop. n. (Geography) The capital city of Brunei. Population (2000) = 52, 300. [ PJC ]

n. The act of disallowing; refusal to admit or permit; rejection.

Syn. -- Disapprobation; prohibition; condemnation; censure; rejection. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Disavowal. [ Obs. ] South. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf. D. dwingen to force, compel. ] 1. (Carp.) A piece of wood set between two studs, posts, etc., to stiffen and support them. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Mech.) (a) A kind of crowbar. (b) A large wrench. Knight. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Formerly, a measuring rod an ell long. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Obs. ] See Ellwand. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Chin. feng + ‘huang. ] (Chinese Myth.) A pheasantlike bird of rich plumage and graceful form and movement, fabled to appear in the land on the accession of a sage to the throne, or when right principles are about to prevail. It is often represented on porcelains and other works of art. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

v. i. To wander away; to go astray; to wander far and to weariness. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

prop. n. 1. A hypothetical continent that (according to plate tectonic theory) broke up later into India and Australia and Africa and South America and Antarctica. See plate tectonics. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. [ Scot., fr. Gael. gugan bud, flower, daisy. ] 1. The daisy, or mountain daisy. [ Scot. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

And pu'd the gowans fine. Burns. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Min.) Decomposed granite. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Having, abounding in, or decked with, daisies. [ Scot. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Sweeter than gowany glens or new-mown hay. Ramsay. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf. Arm. grouan gravel, Corn. grow gravel, sand. ] (Mining.) A decomposed granite, forming a mass of gravel, as in tin lodes in Cornwall. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Chin. 'hai-kuan. ] Chinese maritime customs. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

. A Chinese weight (1/10 catty) equivalent to 11/3 oz. or 37.801 g. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

‖n. (Bot.) The camel's thorn. See under Camel. [ 1913 Webster ]

prop. n. Japanese counterpart of the Chinese Kuan Yin. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

prop. n. (Buddhism) A female Bodhisattva; often called Goddess of Mercy and considered an aspect of the Bodisattva Avalokitesvara; identified with Japanese Kwannon.
Syn. -- Kuan Yin. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. The Australian moundbird (Leipoa ocellata); it incubates eggs naturally in sandy mounds.
Syn. -- mallee fowl, mallee-fowl, leipoa, Leipoa ocellata. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

prop. n. A stout-stemmed genus of fungi belonging to the family Secotiaceae having fruiting bodies that never expand completely. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

prop. n. A small fungus with a fragile cap that cracks to expose the white context and a white stalk that is practically enclosed by the cap. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. [ Mete to measure + wand. ] A measuring rod. Ascham. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. To wander in a wrong path; to stray; to go astray. [ Obs. ] Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A bird of the genus Pedionomus (Pedionomus torquatus) of New South Wales, the only species in the genus. Pedionomus is the only genus of the family Pedionomidae of the order Passeriformes and the plains wanderer is thus the only species in the family. The total world population (ca. 2000) is estimated to be 5 to 10 thousand. See also http://www.philipmaher.com/plains.htm.
Syn. -- plain wanderer. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

{ , n. (Zool.) A small British lake whitefish (Coregonus clupeoides, or Coregonus ferus); -- called also gwyniad and lake herring. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Rowan tree. [ 1913 Webster ]

Rowan barry, a barry of the rowan tree. [ 1913 Webster ]

[ Cf. Sw. rönn, Dan. rönne, Icel. reynir, and L. ornus. ] (Bot.) A european tree (Pyrus aucuparia) related to the apple, but with pinnate leaves and flat corymbs of small white flowers followed by little bright red berries. Called also roan tree, and mountain ash. The name is also applied to two American trees of similar habit (Pyrus Americana, and Pyrus sambucifolia). [ 1913 Webster ]

[ So called from Theodor Schwann, a German anatomist of the 19th century. ] (Anat.) The neurilemma. [ 1913 Webster ]

(Anat.) The substance of the medullary sheath. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Chinese abacus. [ 1913 Webster ]

. (Bot.) See Sea girdles. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } n. The name used by the Algonquin Indians for the shell beads which passed among the Indians as money. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ Seawan was of two kinds; wampum, white, and suckanhock, black or purple, -- the former having half the value of the latter. Many writers, however, use the terms seawan and wampum indiscriminately. Bartlett. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. See Schwan-pan. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. pl. See Sowens. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ AS. swan; akin to D. zwaan, OHG. swan, G. schwan, Icel. svanr, Sw. svan, Dan. svane; and perhaps to E. sound something audible. ] 1. (Zool.) Any one of numerous species of large aquatic birds belonging to Cygnus, Olor, and allied genera of the subfamily Cygninae. They have a large and strong beak and a long neck, and are noted for their graceful movements when swimming. Most of the northern species are white. In literature the swan was fabled to sing a melodious song, especially at the time of its death. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ The European white, or mute, swan (Cygnus gibbus), which is most commonly domesticated, bends its neck in an S-shaped curve. The whistling, or trumpeting, swans of the genus Olor do not bend the neck in an S-shaped curve, and are noted for their loud and sonorous cry, due to complex convolutions of the windpipe. To this genus belong the European whooper, or whistling swan (Olor cygnus), the American whistling swan (Olor Columbianus), and the trumpeter swan (Olor buccinator). The Australian black swan (Chenopis atrata) is dull black with white on the wings, and has the bill carmine, crossed with a white band. It is a very graceful species and is often domesticated. The South American black-necked swan (Sthenelides melancorypha) is a very beautiful and graceful species, entirely white, except the head and neck, which are dark velvety seal-brown. Its bill has a double bright rose-colored knob. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Fig.: An appellation for a sweet singer, or a poet noted for grace and melody; as Shakespeare is called the swan of Avon. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Astron.) The constellation Cygnus. [ 1913 Webster ]

Swan goose (Zool.), a bird of India (Cygnopsis cygnoides) resembling both the swan and the goose. --
Swan shot, a large size of shot used in fowling. [ 1913 Webster ]

obs. imp. of Swing. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf. Swamp. ] A swamp. [ Prov. Eng. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who tends or marks swans; as, the royal swanherd of England. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A corruption of Swan-upping. [ Eng. ] Encyc. Brit. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Eng. Forest Law) See Swainmote. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } n. [ Cf. G. schwank flexible, pliant. ] An active and clever young fellow. [ Scot. ] Sir W. Scott. [ 1913 Webster ]